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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

FEIANKLIN K. LANE. SECRETARY 

NATIONAL PARK SERVICE 

STEPHEN T. MATHER. DIRECTOR 



ORGANIZED 
POPULAR EDUCATION 



ADDRESS 



By ARTHUR E. BESTOR 

President Chautauqua Institution 



DELIVERED AT THE NATIONAL PARKS CONFERENCE 
AT WASHINGTON, D. C. JANUARY 4. 1917 




WASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

1917 



ORGANIZED POPULAR EDUCATION. 

By Arthur E. Bestor, I'rosideiit Chautiiuqua Institution. 

The National Parks Conference has no more important task than 
(he organization of such machinery as will bring to the people of 
America the knowledge of their unsurpassed heritage in the 
national parks and an earnest desire to enjoy them as individuals. 
Speaking on behalf of Chautauqua Institution, for two generations 
one of the great centers for popular education and one of the first 
places where the parks as national playgrounds were brought to 
the attention of the American people on a large scale, I can assure 
you of our readiness to put at your disposal all of our facilities for 
publicity and all of our agencies for the influencing of public 
opinion. 

Our problem, strange to say, has not been unlike the one in which 
we are interested in this conference. Chautauqua has had to induce 
people to leave their comfortable homes in all parts of the country; 
has had to provide for all their physical as well as mental, spiritual, 
and recreational needs: had had to maintain them in safety, health, 
and comfort; had had to see that their environment was such that 
they could work out their social and intellectual salvation in comfort 
and happiness. We have succeeded in building up the unique center 
for popular education of the world, partly because w^e have success- 
fully met the same needs that face you in connection with the 
national parks. We are still under the necessity of taking into 
account railroad rates and transportation problems, sustenance, and 
sanitary arrangements, and of carrying on publicity on a national 
scale. 

There are great interests involved in this conference which do 
not concern themselves with my particular topic — how the parks 
shall be administered, how influence shall be brought to bear on 
Congress for their maintenance and development, what advantage 
shall be taken of them by scientific and educational organizations, 
what shall be the relationship of the National Park Service and the 
National Parks Association to other organizations. But all those 
who are interested in any of these questions will do well to remem- 
ber that all are equally concerned in the problem of the education 
of the mass of the people with reference to the parks. 

How to make our citizens aware of their priceless possessions; 
how to substitute America for Europe as the travel field for lovers 

•22S20 — 17 3 



4 ORGANIZED POPULAR EDUCATION. 

of magnificent scenery and natural beauty ; how to make " See 
America first" a national slogan; how to create a desire and an 
ideal — these are the problems with which we are concerning our- 
selves. 

Comparisons while odious seem always necessary for our human 
understanding. Some lovers of our national parks seem to have 
adopted as their slogan some such phrase as " Substitute America 
for Switzerland " and to conceive their task as the turning of travel 
from the Old World to our own country. There are certain difficul- 
ties inherent in such a task which we ought frankly to face. Com- 
pared with Switzerland we have not as j'et many of the facilities 
which make travel there so great a delight. Government-owned rail- 
roads; hotels and inns along every road and at the end of every 
trail ; organization of an entire nation for the convenience of tourists ; 
expense adjusted to every desire; ease of access to centers of popula- 
tion; historical, literary, and romantic associations — all these and 
not merely scenery alone make the charm of Switzerland and other 
parts of out-of-door Europe. 

If we are really desirous of making the national parks known to 
the American people we must face these difficulties : 

(1) Distance from centers of population especially from those 
parts of the country lacking the grandeur and uni(iueness of scenery 
offered by the national parks. The expense of travel is a consider- 
able item in the vacation budget of all of us. In Europe all travel 
is organized on the basis of first, second, and third class, which most 
of use take advantage of in Europe, but are rather ashamed to use 
in America. 

(2) Expense: This, of course, varies with personal taste, but there 
are thousands of people who will never visit the parks because it 
seems too expensive an undertaking, but who really could afford the 
trip. Our literature must give better indication of the expenses of 
such trips adjusted to the economic necessities of various classes of 
travelers. 

(3) Private exploitation : Too often in America, even where the 
Government owns and administers some historic or scenic site, we 
have left to private exploitation all the common necessities of life. 
Niagara Falls under the old individualistic system was almost un- 
bearable. Public control and intelligent administration have made 
recent visits to the Falls a joyful experience. I am not attempting 
to discuss the whole problem of Government control, but it will add 
to the sum of national proprietorship if the Government can more 
and more actually administer to all our need in our own national 
playgrounds. 

(4) Lack of romantic, literary, and historical associations: A fine 
beginning has been made in the National Parks portfolio in publish- 



OBGANIZED POPULAR EDUCATION. 5 

ing the legends and pioneer history. Our authors and painters and 
nature lovers can do much in creating a literary and artistic tradition 
for the parks. 

(5) Largeness of the task: Any of us who are engaged in the task 
of public education know what a task such a propaganda involves 
in an individualistic society like ours. It is not merely that the 
human mind is so inveterately opposed to new ideas and that so 
many of us look to some country on the other side of the sea as our 
mother land, but that the work of giving a hundred million people 
even a minimum of knowledge is a vast work which challenges us by 
its very immensity. 

What are some of the agencies at our disposal and organizations to 
be utilized? 

(1) Organizations directly involved: In the railroads which reach 
the parks we ha>e the most powerful and influential corporations 
of the country through which they pass. They have already carried 
on a great advertising campaign. I think now of the advertising 
of Glacier Park by the Great Northern and the Grand Canyon by 
the Santa Fe. I understand that more and more the railroads are 
carrying on a continuous advertising campaign to increase travel, 
are cooperating with each other and with the National Park Service, 
and that they stand ready to unite in every effort to make the parks 
better known. 

(2) Personalities: In this movement we can count confidently on 
the support of all lovers of the out-of-doors, of all protectors of bird 
and animal life, of all conservationists of beauty and natural re- 
sources, of all students of geology and forestry, of all believers in the 
surpassing natural beaut}^ of their native land. And all these will 
devote themselves to this labor of love because they are working not 
for individual gain but for the joy of the task and in a common 
understanding with others who have the same unselfish spirit. 

(3) Publicity: We are creating a literature. John Muir, Theo- 
dore Roosevelt, Enos Mills, William T. Hornaday, and others have 
shown us the way. More and more newspapers and periodicals will 
give attention to the parks and their development. The associated 
clubs have done a tremendous piece of work in connection Avith the 
problem of national securit3\ They might well have their attention 
called to the possibility of a nation-wide propaganda for the national 
parks as one of their next tasks. Every patriotic organization should 
have this patriotic opportunity called to their attention. 

(4) Universities, colleges, and scientific societies: Their leaders 
will more and more look to the national parks as laboratories, as 
opportunities for scientific reseai-ch and as the most ideal centers for 
combined vacation and education. 



6 ORGANIZED POPULAR EDUCATION. 

(5) Motion pictures: How wonderfully this most widespread of 
our modern approaches to millions of people lends itself to propa- 
ganda for the national parks. We can reach the multitudes direct 
in no more effective way, and the people themselves will pay the bill. 

(6) Chautauquas, lyceums, women's clubs: All these will respond 
to any such opportunity. It is only a question of how rapidly the 
National Park Service and the National Parks Association are pre- 
pared to supply slides and motion pictures to cooperate with lec- 
turers and programs committees. Every chautauqua auditorium 
and lyceum hall and clubhouse and school building will be open if 
approach is made with national appeal. 

(7) Schools: The distinguished Commissioner of Education has 
doubtless pointed out how the educational system of the country can 
be utilized. Those who have access to publishers of textbooks will 
see to it that even a disproportionate attention is given to the na- 
tional parks in the next few years in the books which are in the 
curriculum of our elementary and intermediate and high schools. 
An exhibit of national-park pictures should be available for every 
school willing to place the exhibit and use the profits for purchase 
of some of the pictures themselves. Alongside copies of the old 
masters and European pictures, some of the fine photographs of the 
national parks should be in every school of the country. 

Our work is to create such an organization as can simultaneously 
take advantage of all these avenues of approach. Our task is 
stupendous because so many opportunities are at our hand. Our 
propaganda yields itself to every agency for popular education and 
democratic organization and national publicity; it relates itself to 
every organization of a patriotic character; it links itself to every 
movement in which we are most deeply interested at the present 
time, conservation, preparedness, Americanization ; it challenges us 
to an individual and collective task of the utmost importance and 
far-reaching value in our common national life. 



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